Jack hopes new fries appeal

Jack in the Box created new French fries with a crispier outside texture that enhances the potato flavor and helps them retain their temperature. The new French fries are available at participating Jack in the Box restaurants in three sizes.

Jack in the Box created new French fries with a crispier outside texture that enhances the potato flavor and helps them retain their temperature. The new French fries are available at participating Jack in the Box restaurants in three sizes.

When it comes to its french fries, Jack in the Box seems to have taken an adage to heart: If at first you don’t succeed, then fry and fry again.

The San Diego-based fast-food chain is ditching its natural cut fries, which debuted in 2004 with the marketing pitch of “bigger and thicker,” for a crispier, thinner fry. The new fries are suspiciously similar to those offered by McDonald’s, “the gold standard in fries,” said Stuart Morris of QSR Consulting Group, a restaurant consulting firm in Coronado.

“It’s a good move,” he said. “If you look at any of the blogs, it was universal. Nobody liked Jack in the Box’s fries.”

(Don’t worry curly fry devotees, Jack in the Box will still offer those.)

Sure, there may be bigger dishes to fry as the burger battles are the central front in the fast-food wars. But fries still are critical because they are part of 60 percent to 70 percent of all fast-food transactions, Morris said.

And fries, more than burgers, are cash cows.

They are low-cost, high-volume and have better price points, explained Bob Goldin, executive vice president at Technomic Inc., a restaurant consulting firm. While dollar-menus are littered with burgers, a large order of fries can cost $2.